October 23, 1895.] 



Garden and Forest. 



429 



its native country is unknown. The slender flexuous branches 

 make it a traihng plant when without support. The rather 

 scattering umbels of phlox-purple flowers usually contain one 

 or more flowers, with a canary-yellow centre bordered with 

 white, followed l)y a fruit slightly resembling a blackberry. It 

 seems to be easily propagated, and is said to have once been 

 a favorite in eastern conservatories, but it flourishes here at 

 all seasons out-of-doors. 



Narcissus Corcyrensis, a dainty species sent to us from the 

 Holy Land, bloomed on Christmas Day. The flower was sin- 

 gle, pure white, with a tiny orange-colored cup, the whole less 

 than an inch across, and borne on a stem just three inches 

 high. Other plants of the same species bloomed late in Sep- 

 tember. This species is referred to N. Tazetta in the Index 

 Ke-wetisis. r- d r^ 4, 



Orctitt, Calif. L. K. Urcntt. 



Bulletins of the Experiment Stations. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — I should like to add a word to what you said last week 

 on the experiment stations concerning the mechanical make- 

 up of the bulletins. Some of those which I received are printed 

 on the flimsiest of paper with battered type, and the numerous 

 typographical errors show that tliey have had nothing like 

 careful revision or proof-reading. Others show attempts at 

 illustration which are half-tone reproductions of photographs 

 taken with cheap lenses, and carelessly printed at that. Novsf, 

 an illustration which is made to enforce some lesson ought to 

 be accurate, and certainly if it is used simply to make the bul- 

 letin attractive nothing but the very best work is worth using. 

 It seems to me that no clean, sharp, scientific work can be 

 expected in an office where the publications are of sucli a low 

 mechanical and artistic quality. 



Bloomfield, N.J. , S. 1\. 



[It is probable that in some states the stations ought not 

 to be held responsible for the mechanical quality of their 

 bulletins. It is sometimes the case that there is a state 

 oflicer who is authorized to do all the public printing, and 

 it may be that under such regulations the station authori- 

 ties have not the power to secure such paper, type and press 

 work as they desire. It is to be hoped, for example, that 

 neither the board of control nor the director of the Ohio 

 Experiment Station is responsible for the paper or the 

 printing or the illustrations in tlie thirteenth annual report 

 of that station, which is dated December, 1894, but which 

 has just come to hand. — Ed.] 



How to Exterminate Cat Tails. 

 To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Will you kindly inform me under what depth of water 

 common Sedge Grass and Cat Tails will live ? I have a swamp 

 of fresh water, and it is now nearly covered with these Grasses. 

 I can at a small expense have them cut a foot below the surface, 

 and then I can raise the water until it is everywhere three or 

 four feet deep. Can I stop the growth of these plants in this 

 way and thus secure a clean surface of water ? 



Newark, N.J. T. 



[When Cranberry-bogs are prepared they are flooded in 

 this vi'ay, and if the pond is kept four feet deep continu- 

 ously through the season the bog-plants are practically 

 destroyed. Mr. William Tricker, hovi'ever, writes that 

 while Sedge Grass cannot live under this depth of water, 

 he has seen Cat Tails survive in water three feet deep. His 

 advice is to draw off the water if possible, and in the spring, 

 as fast as the Cat Tails appear, to pull them up and keep at it 

 until they are exterminated. If this is impracticable, persis- 

 tent cutting of the tops will kill them, although it may be 

 a tedious job. Of course, when the tops are constantly cut 

 the roots cannot mature and will ultimately die. We should 

 be very glad to publish the experience of any one vv'ho has 

 had success in exterminating Cat Tails. — Ed.] 



visit to England. The glimpses of flowers one gets as the 

 train shoots by a small station, or the view, when the train stops 

 at a larger one, of carefully tended beds with thousands of 

 bright blossoms, were always refreshing. The better flower- 

 ing annuals were often employed in good-sized beds, and 

 Roses in their season were always abundant and left a most 

 pleasing impression. There is no need of our literally copying 

 the English style of planting, but it would be well if the direc- 

 tors of some of our roads would imitate this English example 

 in a general way and make the spaces about our railway sta- 

 tions, which are now bare and often unsightly, beautiful with 

 greensward, well-selected shrubs and plants. 

 Clifton. N. Y. E. H. B. 



Poisoning from Rhus. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — My experience coincides with that of the writer in 

 your issue for October 2d. I have twice been severely 

 poisoned by Rhus Toxicodendron. After the first poisoning 

 it was seven or eight years before the effects of the poison 

 ceased to appear year after year. I still have an annual recur- 

 rence of the trouble from the effects of my last poisoning, 

 although with a decreasing severity each year. 



Pliiladelphia, Pa. O. W. Spratt. 



Railway Station Gardens. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir,— Referring to a note in No. 388 of Garden and Forest, 

 concerning the prizes offered for the best station gardens by 

 the Midland Railway in England, I would say that these sta- 

 tion gardens are among the brightest memories of a recent 



Recent Publications. 



Synoptical Flora of North A77ierica. Vol. i., Parti., Fas- 

 cicle I. By Asa Gray and Sereno Watson ; continued and 

 edited by Benjamin Lincoln Robinson. American Book 

 Company, 1895. 



This work, a synoptical description of the plants of 

 North America north of Mexico, was planned by Asa 

 Gray. In 1878 he published part i. of the second volume, 

 comprising the gamopetalous orders after Compositas, and 

 in 1884 part ii. of the first voluine, including the Gamo- 

 petalae, from Caprifoliacea^ through the Compositse. During 

 the last years of his life he was engaged upon the earlier 

 polypetalous orders, and at the time of his death, in 

 January, 1888, he had finished several of the orders before 

 Leguminosag. After Dr. Gray's death the work was con- 

 tinued by Dr. Sereno Watson, who prepared the manuscript 

 of eleven genera of Cruciferse, including several of the 

 largest and most difficult groups of the order. In 1892 

 Dr. Watson died, and the continuation of the work was 

 entrusted to his successor in the curatorship of the Gray 

 Herbarium, Dr. Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, v\'ho now 

 publishes Fascicle i of Part i., Vol. i., including the poly- 

 petalous orders from Ranunculacese to Frankeniacea; in 

 208 pages. 



The present instalment of this great work follows its pred- 

 ecessors in form, the orders elaborated by Dr. Gray being 

 printed from the manuscript as he left it, with little change, 

 additions, whether of extended range, new synonyms or 

 bibliographical references, being added in foot-notes. All 

 questions of nomenclature have been treated with the 

 greatest conservatism ; and those botanists who dislike 

 reforms in nomenclature will find new comfort in this work, 

 while those who are laboring for a stable nomenclature 

 will regret the differences of opinion among the working 

 botanists of the country, which it only too clearly makes 

 evident. But whether tiie names of the plants in this work 

 are selected according to a rule or to suit the fancy of indi- 

 vidual botanists is a matter of small importance in com- 

 parison with the completion of this work ; and this 

 instalment will be received with the greatest satisfaction 

 by the botanists of all countries. 



A comprehensive Flora of North America has long been 

 needed, and the absence of such a work has proved a 

 serious hindrance to the study of our botany. Apart from 

 its value, however, as a descriptive account, in convenient 

 form, of the plants of one of the great divisions of the 

 earth's surface, the completed Synoptical Flora of North 

 America will be the best monument his successors can raise 

 to the memory of the great master of American botany, 

 whose life was spent in preparing for this work. 



